As it celebrates 100 years in WA, Country Women’s Association returns to tiny Beacon and makes a difference

Right on the north-east fringes of the Wheatbelt, the little farming town of Beacon’s motto is “living on the edge”. Inclusive of the surrounding region, the population here, 320km north-east of Perth, is about 300 — though that swells during the wildflower season as tourists make a beeline for the area. But otherwise, Beacon’s main street is basically silent bar the chirrups of birds careening from telephone pole lines and gum trees, and the occasional grain truck rolling in, groaning as it drops through the gears. But every now and then, you may hear the the thundering of footsteps as children spill out of one of the houses on the main street, barrelling down the veranda and running to the playground just up the road. Inside this house, you may also hear the hum of conversation as women chatter and laugh about work, school, and the harvest. The gathering is a Country Women’s Association meeting, the first to be held in Beacon for more than a decade after its branch was forced to shut down. Beacon CWA branch president Nancy Dease was one of the instigators for the branch’s reopening, along with Tanya Gibson, a farmer and Mt Marshall shire councillor, who said she was left reeling after the community lost someone to suicide. It was the “not knowing” other people’s personal circumstances that affected Ms Gibson the most. “It was just so hard to know that I drive past her house many times thinking that she was so busy in her life, with her children, and not calling in for a cuppa … I struggled with that,” she said. “Who do you turn to? Everybody else was suffering… and I just felt that I needed to connect, otherwise, I felt like I was going down the same sort of path of feeling like a nobody and feeling so alone.” Originally from Perth, Ms Dease has lived on a farm east of Beacon for 10 years and is now the manager of the town’s community resource centre. Ms Dease said she was motivated to start up the CWA branch to continue the legacy of the past members who had invested so much into their local community. Earlier in the year, she had read about Transhipment Services Australia director Ian Junk, who had gifted $100,000 towards an initiative between CWA of WA and Kings Park and Botanic Gardens, in memory of his mother, who was a member of the Beacon branch. “I just thought it was a great thing he was doing, but also really sad because he was so heavily invested in his mother’s legacy, but the branch she belonged to didn’t exist anymore,” Ms Dease said. Ms Dease would go on to hold information sessions, which brought in a tide of women from the area, both young and old. The branch officially reopened the day before Anzac Day. Now members gather once a month, asked only to bring drinks and a meal to share. Ms Dease said when she was a teenager in Perth, she did not quite understand the appeal of the CWA — she envisioned it only as a place where old women came to knit and bake. “But now that I’m in the country, I understand it a bit more,” Ms Dease said. “And I just thought, it’s (the CWA) a brilliant idea.” The CWA of WA, celebrating its centenary this year, has always been a deep vein in the State’s history. Nationally, the not-for-profit has around 8000 CWA members, all of whom belong to more than 370 local branches. In WA alone, there are 120 branches, the first of which was founded in the Wheatbelt town of Nungarin in 1924. The CWA, commonly associated with the image of tea and scones, and of course, the iconic CWA cookbook, has long been the beating heart for many rural communities. Whether providing help to people during bush fires, floods, droughts, personal disasters or advocating for changes to political policy, CWA members roll up their sleeves and rise to the challenge of helping their communities, both on a local and national level. The CWA also provides a simple way for women to come together and support one another in parts of the country with small populations. From the Wheatbelt, where women came together in CWA restrooms, to the far-flung corners of remote Australia, where members tuned into meetings over the two-way radio, the CWA was there. Felicity Edwards, recently appointed State CWA president at its centenary conference, said she was delighted to see the reopening of the Beacon branch. She said it was a showcase of how CWA was once again “capturing the imagination” of women, especially the younger generation, and she hoped more people could benefit from what CWA provides. “Purposeful friendship ... for me as an individual, that’s what I get out of CWA,” she said. “Yes, we can have our cups of tea and our tea and scones … but even while we’re doing that, we’re supporting each other in everyday life as well as looking at the bigger picture.” Two more branches, one in Grass Patch and one in Kalgoorlie, are also looking at reopening next year. And now, it is back to support the women of Beacon. Ms Gibson said the local CWA has been able to bring together community members who may see each other often, but never sit down to talk with each other — as well as providing a social avenue to encourage more people to live in the area. “Normally the young ones head off to school and don’t come back, but they’re actually coming back onto the farms now,” she said. The Beacon CWA building, on the main street just opposite the town hall, has been the shell for many initiatives through the years. At one point, it was even a hair salon. While the house is still multipurpose, as of this year, it has returned to its original function as a meeting place for CWA women. At a meeting of the Beacon branch late last month, small children gathered in a corner of the house, providing a noisy backdrop to the women’s business. Ruth De Jong, a woman in her 70s, is sporting a smile and busily makes her way around the room, quick to ask everyone what they would like to drink before disappearing into the kitchen. Ms De Jong is retired, and lives on a small farm just outside of town. She originally came from NSW but after eight years of living in Perth, she decided she “wanted something different” and came to Beacon, where she has since lived for just over 30 years. Ms De Jong was also the president of the Beacon CWA branch when it came to a close in 2008, despite her best efforts to keep the branch afloat. During its peak, the women on the branch proved effective and resourceful during years of intense drought, she said. When grain prices dropped and rain failed to come, the branch jumped in to help farming families who were struggling to make ends meet by providing them with hand-delivered care packages. While the CWA was about pitching in and helping others, for women like Ms De Jong, it was also a vital support network, and members would always bog in to help one another. “It might’ve just been someone was sick — we’d make a meal then, and a deliver it, and that sort of thing,” Ms De Jong said. “Or if there’d been a death in the family, you’d take a plate or meal over and it saves them having to think about it. “Because there’s nothing worse than when you lose someone. You don’t think straight.” But by 2008, that support network was waning as more people left the area. Members were growing older, and either moved away to retire or grew too sick or unwell to be involved with the CWA anymore. Others had also become too busy on their farms or in their personal lives to remain invested in the branch. “I didn’t want to close it … but you can’t have a club with one member,” Ms De Jong said. “It was great because you came to the meetings every month, and you had a nice friendly group who’d still discuss everything we had to discuss.” She said shutting down the branch made her feel “miserable” and in her own life, it removed an important anchor she struggled to replace. But now, the branch is back, albeit a little different. Ms Dease said she is yet to see a scone in a meeting, but there have been attempts to teach one another knitting, a skill not everyone has successfully taken up. For Courtney Begley, the branch’s vice-president, CWA has created a “safe space” to come and talk. “I don’t think we’ve had a meeting yet where we haven’t just laughed the whole time,” she said. “During busy seasons, like harvest and seeding, sometimes it feels like you are a sole parent with an extra adult in the house. “You know they’re there, and they’re still supportive, but sometimes it’s nice to have a group of people that you can lean on when you feel like that other support system just isn’t there.” Ms Begley said the CWA had been helpful for parenting support, filling in for the limited childcare resources in the country with the expertise and knowledge from women like Ms De Jong, who’ve “done it all before”. For Ms Gibson, who is now the branch secretary, the CWA has filled a gap in her life, and now she uses her time to check in with others, CWA members or not, whom she feels may be lonely. “It’s helped me in a way that makes me feel like I am somebody again,” she said. State CWA chief executive Trish Langdon said the organisation will keep striving to be relevant and flexible for each individual community moving forward, so branches could cater to the specific needs of each community. “Our work’s not going to stop because the centenary is over,” she said. For the Beacon branch itself, Ms Dease has a big-picture vision. “I want to renovate this place, and I want to create a big outdoor area where we can sit around and watch the sunset,” she said. “I want to do more and give more. But right now, I just want to test the waters.” Ms Gibson said she simply hoped the the Beacon branch would be a place where everyone felt welcome, from the elderly right down to the children – even if they are not quite sure what all the fuss is about just yet.